


Be Brave

by Baroness_Blixen



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Christmas Time, F/M, Some Fluff, maggie scully pov, maggie scully ships it, scully family dinners
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-13
Packaged: 2019-09-17 13:34:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16975527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Baroness_Blixen/pseuds/Baroness_Blixen
Summary: This year Fox Mulder is invited to the Scully Christmas dinner.





	Be Brave

Christmas time, her favorite holiday. She misses her husband, her dear Bill, with a longing, with every candle she lights. They spent every Christmas together as a couple, later as a family. Now she spends it with her children and their families. She tries to, anyway. This Christmas they’re all here, except Melissa. Her darling daughter gone, too. Her only solace is the knowledge that her soul is not alone, not out there searching, but with her father, smiling down at them. It makes Maggie smile, too.

They’re chatty, her children and their spouses. Only Fox and Dana are quiet, subdued. Her youngest daughter has carried this sadness around with her for far longer than Maggie thought possible. It follows her like a shadow, is like an accessory she puts on every morning. The only time she ever sees her smile, be really happy, is when Fox is around. So of course she invited him. She doubts he wants to be here. His smile is polite, he answers politely when spoken to directly, but other than that he’s silent, mirroring Dana’s mood.

Maggie warned Bill Jr. to behave and he does. She knew Charlie would like Fox and as always she was right. Her plan, so far, has backfired though. Dana and Fox may be sitting next to each other, but they couldn’t be further apart. She needs to change that.

As soon as dinner is over, Bill and Charlie round up the kids that are old enough for a game of football. Matty is still way too young, but Charlie’s three children can’t wait for the game to begin.

“Hey Mulder, you want to play?” Charlie asks as he puts a hat on one of his children. All of them blessed (or cursed) with bright red Scully hair.

“Go play,” Maggie says, taking the dirty plates from him he was just about to take to the kitchen. Still he waits for Dana to give him a small nod, a smile. Then he’s gone.

“You go, too.” She ushers Tara outside as well as Charlie’s wife Nadine. Dana stares at her, open-mouthed. Maggie strokes her cheek, wanting a moment alone with her daughter.

“Is Fox good at football?” The running water provides a soft background noise as they work side by side.

“I wouldn’t know.” Dana doesn’t even look up, but Maggie does. Through the kitchen window she sees them, her sons, her grandchildren and the man who’s become family, too. He reminds her of their first dog, Buster. A loyal pup that grew bigger than they’d anticipated, never quite understanding himself how big he was, how much chaos he could cause with just a wag of his tail. They all adored him, Dana especially.

“You don’t talk about things like that?”

“Mom, we work together.”

“So? He’s your friend, isn’t he?” Maggie wonders if Dana realizes that she’s scrubbed the same plate for over two minutes. It’s clean. Carefully she takes the dish from her.

“It’s just not something we talk about.” But she wants to. Dana thinks she’s hard to read, difficult to understand. Not for Maggie. She glances through the window and sees Mulder and Charlie laughing together. Even Bill looks peaceful. She loves her son, but she knows what as ass he can be. Like his father before him he only wants what’s best for his family. He just doesn’t always know what that is and so he struts into every situation like a bull into a china shop.

“But he came to our Christmas family dinner, didn’t he?” Dana looks up, stares through the window, her expression unreadable.

“Mom? Would dad have liked Mulder?” The easy answer is a quick no. Bill Scully would have seen a dreamer in Fox Mulder, an improbable man not worthy of his daughter. Because in his eyes no man ever was. But then he’d look closer and see the deep love between them; that invisible bond between them, like an elastic band always snapping back. She and Bill were the same.

“He would have loved him,” she answers, knowing it’s the truth.

Each night before he left her to fend for herself while he sailed the seas, he whispered the same words into her ear: be brave, sweetheart. Be brave. The words like a vow, over and over again. It is time to pass them on. Dana’s mind is not here, is trying to solve puzzles Maggie can barely comprehend. There is one thing she does understand and it’s love.

“Dana, honey.” Her daughter blinks at her, as if she’s been far away. Her heart, Maggie suspects, out there with Fox. “Be brave, sweetheart. Go out there and tell Fox that you love him.”

“Mom!”

“Go on, tell him.”

“How do you even-” Her face is as crimson as her hair and Maggie smiles.

“I’m your mother. Now go tell him! How long do you want to make him wait?”

“You think I-” Another sentence she doesn’t finish. She dries her hands on a kitchen towel, hugs her mother with a quick whispered “thank you”. Maggie waits, waits until Dana appears outside. The look on Fox’s face is a gift in and of itself. She doesn’t need to know what her daughter is saying, what Fox is replying. They move closer and closer together until it’s hard to tell where one begins and the other ends.

Maggie picks up another plate, washes and dries it. The smile on her face is soft, pure and happy. She thinks of Missy, of Bill; of love. Tonight, all is well.


End file.
